Hopperesque

Friday, 9 May 2014

Out on the Edge

I don't wish to be too romantic about my experience there in the recovery facility in St Charles Avenue in uptown New Orleans. While i gazed through my window at the wonderful green streetcar wobbling down the tracks on the neutral ground, the river fog puffing out of the live oak trees, the pink and purple neon on the Katz and Besthoff drugstore as efferfescent as tentacles of smoke twirling from marker grenades, i knew with a sinking heart that what i was seeing was an illusion, that in reality the Katz and Besthoff drugstore and the umbrella covered sno'ball carts had slipped into history long ago, and somewhere out on the edge of my vision, the onset of permanent winter waited for me.

Hardboiled/Noir

'It was one of those hot dry Santa Annas that come down thru the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge. ............ Red Wind- Raymond Chandler